Grounded
by Proudbooklover
Summary: Apollo and Artemis are in trouble again, and engage in some confessions... One-shot. Rated T but WARNING- has one swear word and non explicit violence. But I didn't think it was enough to be rated M. Enjoy!


DISCLAIMER- I do not own these two. Um, I'm not actually sure who they belong to- Rick or Mythology or something? Anyway, they don't belong to me.

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"This is all your fault," Apollo sulked, crossing his arms and slouching down in his chair, his bottom lip pouting.

"My fault?" Artemis reared up at once. "None of this is my fault!"

She stood up and began pacing the room. Her and her twin brother were currently locked in an utterly circular, bare, white room with no doors, windows or any possible escape routes. The only pieces of furniture were two hard backed chairs. Also, none of their powers worked in here. They had found that out the hard way.

"Is not," Apollo muttered.

"Is too,"

"Not,"

"Is,"

"Not!"

"Is!"

"Urg!"

"Urh!" Artemis resumed her pacing, occasionally staring irritatedly at her brother.

"How long are we going to be in here for?" Apollo whined.

"I expect-"

"You will be in here for as long as it takes for you two to make up." Zeus's voice boomed around the room, causing them both to glare up at the ceiling.

"I guess we're going to be in here forever, then." Artemis sighed as she sat down, tired of stalking around.

"Still not my fault," Apollo grumbled. Artemis death glared him.

"It most certainly is!"

"Fine!" Apollo threw up his hands. "Tell me what I did!"

Artemis bristled.

"Oh, okay, then. You made me sneak out of my room, through the entire palace trying not to get caught, just to let your sorry, drunk arse in! Then I had to practically carry you up to your room but you were so loud that one of my Hunters found us. And then you hit on her and tried to make advances on her! Like trying to kiss her, I might add! So your drunkenness attracted a lot of attention and one of the guards found us and I got dragged into all of this for nothing!" Artemis raged. Apollo stared at her in disbelief.

"_For nothing_? You punched me in the fucking jaw!"

"Language," Zeus warned, but neither of them paid him any attention.

"You were harassing one of my Hunters!" Artemis roared.

"I was drunk!" Apollo said defensively. Almost as an afterthought, he added, "And she _was_ rather pretty."

"Shut up!" Artemis screamed at him, and they both jumped to their feet, staring each other down. "You're such a jerk!"

"I'm sorry I actually know how to have fun!"

Artemis punched him in the ribs. Apollo doubled over for a moment before punching back harder. And so it continued. They rolled around on the floor, lashing out at each other and pointedly ignoring Zeus's voice ordering them to stop. Suddenly, Apollo paused, staring down at his sister pinned under him. He could see in her eyes, clear as day: fear. She was scared of him.

"Sis?" he whispered. Immediately, her hard mask was back and she shoved him off of her.

"Sod off, Apollo," she huffed, stalking to the other side of the room and collapsing on the floor. Apollo stared at her for a second, utterly confused, before walking over to her and putting a cautious hand on her shoulder. Surprisingly, she didn't shrug it off.

"What do you want?" Artemis tried to sound hostile but was too exhausted for it to have any real malice..

"Sis... You're not... Scared... Of me... Are you?" Apollo asked hesitantly. Artemis stiffened.

"I'm not scared of anything."

Apollo suddenly sat down back-to-back with her. Again, he was surprised she didn't flinch away.

"Well, that's stupid."

"What?"

"It's good to be scared of something. It keeps you leveled. And it teaches you to overcome it." he spoke softly. "There's plenty of things I'm scared of."

"Like what?" Artemis's voice was timid and broken, and the silent plea of need wasn't lost on Apollo.

"Well," he thought. "I'm scared of the dark, for one."

"Really?" she whispered.

"Yeah. I'm scared of failure. I'm scared of disappointment." Apollo hesitated, but eventually blurted out his most secret fear. "I'm scared of rejection." He felt Artemis's sharp intake of breath.

"You? Scared of rejection? How?" she spoke quietly. Reassuringly. Understandingly. Apollo swallowed.

"Rejection from girls. That always knocked down my self esteem. Rejection from my kids is always a huge worry. It- it scares me to no end. I-I only have a few and I love them with all my heart. If t-they rejected me... I'd be crushed. It'd be like one of your Hunters leaving you." Apollo heard the strangled sob from Artemis. However, instead of offering comfort, he merely curled himself up into a tight ball. "Rejection from our family." he whispered so quietly that Artemis barely heard him. She also tucked herself into a ball and hugged her knees.

"Yeah," she whispered sadly, head down in defeat. "Me too." They stayed there for several minutes, unconsciously matching their breathing, calming each other down just by being there.

"Artemis?"

"Mmhm?"

"You're not really... Scared of me, are you?"

She stiffened and Apollo tensed, unsure whether he'd crossed the line or not. Despite this, she relaxed against him once more.

"Sometimes."

"Why?" he choked, and his heart ached at her confession; his own twin was frightened of him.

"Sometimes, when you get really angry, your eyes start to glow, and you look so full of rage an-and it's at me an-and y-you look too strong-g and I get scared." She finally broke down and sobbed into her knees, soon followed by Apollo. Eventually, they turned around and held each other, embracing and crying and letting out all their troubles, all their fears, all their emotions that they'd bottled up for so long. They hugged and kissed and cried onto each other's shoulders until Artemis pulled away, drying her eyes on the back of her hand. Apollo gave her a crooked smile and she gave a weak chuckle.

"Idiot," she teased lovingly.

"Stupid," he smiled slightly back. Suddenly, he embraced her again and muttered into Artemis's ear,

"Please don't be scared of me. Please. I'm sorry. For everything. Forgive me?" he croaked.

"Forgiven." she hugged tightly back. Immediately, a door appeared on the opposite wall. "Come on," Artemis sniffed. "Lets get out of here."

"Okay," Apollo put his arm around her shoulders and held her close. Artemis leaned into him and let out a shaky breath.

"This was still your fault, you know." she mumbled, a sly grin on her lips.

"Wasn't," Apollo grumbled, glancing down at her affectionately.

"Was," she grinned cheekily up at him.

"Kids!" Zeus roared as they chased each other out of the room, laughing and squealing all the way.

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Hey! So I was just having total writer's block whilst trying to think of ideas for the next chapter of Double Life when this just hit me and I just had to make a one-shot of these two because I love them so much. Do you? Anyway, please review, because it makes me really happy and I feel all mushy inside. Love you!


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